Great Male Survey 2012: Modern Men On The State Of America

Great Male Survey: What Men Really Think Of America

The Great Male Survey 2012 results are in, so AskMen called on a panel of expert survey analysts to make sense of the results. They weren’t available, though, so you’re stuck with me. I wasn’t expecting Bush-era patriotism, but I also wasn’t expecting numbers that look more like the results of a poll taken anonymously in North Korea. Let’s take a look at some key findings to get an idea of today’s man’s outlook on America.

The Economy: Blame Everyone And Cut Everything

There’s no doubt in my mind that the biggest thing America has against it right now is the economy. In fact, according to the most recent Gallup poll, American economic confidence is the lowest it’s been since January. It’s pretty bad when, in the season of rooftop barbecues and shirtlessness, we can’t muster any more optimism than we had in January, a month that has, like, zero holidays.

The silver lining, if there is one, is that AskMen readers don’t believe we’re solely to blame. While 27% do in fact blame America for the world’s economic woes, most (63%) believe everyone is equally to blame. To me, this is actually pretty significant. I think it marks a bit of a trend reversal from the last several years, when those who traveled abroad were almost embarrassed to identify themselves as Americans. Fast-forward to 2012, and it’s a good sign that we no longer tolerate having the finger pointed solely at us. The world’s economy is more interconnected and complicated than it’s ever been, and the truth is that the leading nations of the world are more or less in it together. Success and failure hinge on our ability to cooperate and coordinate our recovery efforts.

Speaking of recovery, readers are split. The leading solution, with just over 33% of responses, was economic stimulus. The intriguing part of this is that the second most popular response, with just over 24% of the votes, was budget cuts, which is literally the exact opposite of economic stimulus.

What I find interesting is that the survey never specified what budgets we’re supposed to be cutting. Defense? Sure, that would make sense, because a survey conducted by the Program for Public Consultation, the Stimson Center and the Center for Public Integrity found that three quarters of respondents favored lowered defense spending. I could also see support for cuts coming from healthcare and social security spending, because that’s the next largest chunk of the federal budget.

This tells me two things: One, that AskMen has a pretty ideologically diverse readership, and, two, that no one actually knows what the solution is. That seems to align with the electorate as a whole, because lately the strategy seems to be to “throw ideas against the wall and see what sticks."

The most telling part to me was the fact that “wait it out” was slightly more popular than “none of the above,” with 14% and 13%, respectively. The underlying concept of our economy has always been a market-driven affair, and to me the unpopularity of the “wait it out” option says that we’re losing our faith in the free market. Given that voter abstinence was just as popular as the “wait it out” option, I feel like we’ve reached a certain kind of economic agnosticism, where we believe something should be done but are just not sure what. I also think that’s part of why waiting it out was so unpopular, because doing nothing just doesn’t sound right, even if it’s the correct move. Is it? I don’t know, because an economics degree does not an economist make, but I know we’ve tried both of the most popular options and our confidence in the economy is still in the dumper.

Our Place In The World: Would You Like Fortune Cookies With Your Order?

Yes, it’s true that boasting the strongest economy in the world right now is like bragging about being the world’s tallest midget. Still, you’d think we’d have a little more pride in that statistic. While most readers felt that we are still a superpower and an exceptional country, you also believe that our superpower status is on the decline, as is our exceptionalism (76% and 53%, respectively). A Pew Global Attitudes poll taken a year ago seems to support that sentiment on a global scale, with respondents believing that China will or already has overtaken America as the world’s leading superpower. In another related poll (according to Google), the most desirable superpower among Americans is telepathy (followed by time travel), which is incredibly lame.